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Stories to move even this mean spirit

Evicted, BBC1

Secret Millionaire, Channel 4

WHEN Carol Smillie went to the papers to complain that the BBC had tried to get her husband to say nasty things about the judges on Strictly Come Dancing (whom the BBC had paid to say nasty things about his wife's dancing), I didn't find it especially satisfying to have my jaded view of the workings of TV producers confirmed. Nevertheless it does make it harder to watch programmes like Evicted - a new fly on the wall documentary about the plight of homeless families - with an open mind.

In pursuit of inauthenticity, I found myself asking mean-spirited questions, such as how many homeless families could be housed with the money the programme cost to make. When it turned out that one homeless family couldn't get temporary private sector accommodation because the hostel didn't want TV cameras in their house, I heard myself shouting at the father: "Well get rid of the cameras, then, if you care about your family." But a deal was struck with the owners that they could film so long as the hostel wasn't identified.

Charlotte's family lived in the West Country. Her father was a bus driver who had to give up his job when her mother became ill. At a later point, the family were evicted from their rented accommodation to allow the owners to sell up. Their belongings were put in storage and they went to stay with friends in a Minehead Housing Association flat. The housing association heard about it and threw them out. The family were on the street for the day while their situation was sorted out. Minehead Council refused to provide emergency accommodation - that is, until the family involved the homeless charity Shelter and were threatened with court action. Taunton Council gave them six weeks bed and breakfast accommodation.

This was just one example of several different unfortunate sets of circumstances which left families homeless. The makers concluded that the central problem was not the shortage of housing but the cost of it. In England and Wales there are about 1.5 million homeless people, but there are 700,000 empty flats and houses.

With its understated approach, and the unusually authentic self-revelation it coaxed out of the families, Evicted steadily eroded my scepticism and ended up as eloquently campaigning TV on behalf of those who - for whatever reason - are stuck in the horror zone at the arse-end of capitalism. By the end of the programme I was ready to write to my MP - if I only knew who my MP was - and take to the streets.

If you were Ben - a thrusting young entrepreneur - and you wanted to share out some of your booty to deserving parties who lack your privileges in start-up resources, would you also phone up Channel 4 and ask them to send a camera? It would certainly be a sign that you haven't been boning up on keeping charity anonymous. Did no one warn him about how his life will now be taken over by begging letters? You'd also have to be banking on an audience of ingénues who wouldn't go thinking dark thoughts, for example that your true motive was to publicise your multi-million-pound businesses.

But should Channel 4 suggest the programme will involve going undercover as a do-good volunteer in a high crime neighbourhood to decide who should get your money - and at the end of the process turning up in a sharp suit to reveal your true identity and dish out the booty on camera - and you choose to go along with it, it will be enough to make grown men cry. And believe me, when the unpaid youth club worker, the budding fashion designer and the ex-boxer who didn't have enough money to get married were handed their cheques for £10,000 and £20,000 they cried all right.

Just as I was allowing myself to become a naïve trusting fool again in the big bad world of TV, why oh why did I tune into The Secret Millionaire?

This article: http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1772842006

Last updated: 30-Nov-06 00:29 GMT